I had planned to knit all day! ALL DAY!! But, I got up wanting to play in the kitchen.
One of the things I want to make this week is pho and Walmart doesn’t have bean sprouts so I had to sprout my own. I started them a couple of days ago so hopefully towards the end of the week, they’ll be ready. Otherwise, I’ll just leave out the bean sprouts and make it again when they’re ready. I made sure I had everything I want to make it but I won’t take the chicken out of the freezer til I see when the bean sprouts will be ready.
I had baby back ribs in the freezer so I took them out, seasoned them, re-sealed them and will probably cook them tomorrow. I want to try with the sous vide.
Hopefully I can have pho later in the week. Ribs at least three nights, and leftover roast beef from Friday so . . I’m all set on meals this week.
Rita now has five bags of dog food. Each bag usually lasts about 4 days.
Then I made blueberry muffins (from a mix).
I had blueberry muffins, a few walnuts and half a banana for breakfast.
That was a nice break from bacon and eggs!
For some reason, Vince never could get my Chromebook to print from any of the printers so he left me a laptop. I wanted to print a few things so I turned it on. Of course, there was a pass code or whatever they call it and I had no idea what it was. It was the laptop I used before getting this Chromebook but Vince was using it when he was here. I had no idea what pass code . . ahh . . pin . . that’s what it’s called . . he had used so it asked if I wanted to reset and I said yes and then it said I also had to reset the Microsoft password. Oops . . I think Vince uses that so I called him and he didn’t answer. Called later and he didn’t answer so . . I reset the Microsoft password too. He wasn’t terribly happy about that but . . it’s just a password!
Then I mopped the wood floors . . then I took a 3 hour nap.
Here it is 7:00 p.m. and I haven’t knitted my first stitch but . . I also haven’t bought floss or cross stitch patterns either so it’s been a good day.
Donna Williams says
I laughed so hard at the crossed out part. I purchased 2 charts yesterday and 2 today. There. I’ve confessed. You’ve had a busy day, so enjoy your knitting.
Judy Laquidara says
I almost made it through the day, then got a note that Cross Stitching Supplies had restocked their DMC floss. I had a long list of flosso that I “needed” and I had seen another pattern on a Flosstube. So it goes . .
Sandi B says
Technology…the best and worst of things, sometimes at the same time!
I’m about ready to pull the trigger on the Instant Pot sous vide. It’s all your fault!!
Thank you for leading us all down these rabbit holes with you. I, for one, enjoy the journey!
Jill McCaughey says
Judy, I can’t help but wonder how much plastic you are using (only once?) with the souls vide? And if you didn’t have the solar panels for inexpensive power, would you consider it a good investment? I haven’t tried one yet, or had anything prepared with it, so my questions might have already been answered in a previous post, also. Jill in Phoenix/Calgary
LIz says
I don’t have a sous vide but am thinking about it, so your questions are good ones. I checked online for energy costs for sous vide and the articles were interesting. Part of the issues is how the sous vide is set up – open, covered, insulated, etc. Obviously, the more insulated the set up, the cheaper and the costs seem reasonable. There was even a comparison if you started with tap water or hot tap water!
So, there are other costs to consider… you mentioned the plastic. If you are buying a larger cut of meat and dividing it for future meals, the best storage is the vacuum seal bags for the freezer. And Judy has mentioned that there is little cleanup, eliminating the need for soap and water for cleaning all the dishes. I think I read the Judy recycles the water for plant watering.
If you didn’t use sous vide, then you would still be using some form of energy – gas, electricity, charcoal. so, there is a cost there. Only a solar oven would be “free energy”.
A final part of the cost benefit analysis would be labor costs – if you buy in bulk sizes and then prep everything in one day, then what is the labor cost per meal for bulk prep vs daily prep. I’ll buy some veggies and spend an hour cleaning and cutting them up so future food prep is easier.
I was checking out sous vide units and noticed that there are some Instant Pot units which are multi-function so it is a sous vide unit as well as a slow cooker, and other functions, but not a pressure cooker. But still, a multi-function unit might be the way to go if you are looking for other functions.
Getting into a new cooking method is so complicated!
Judy Laquidara says
The 11 in 1 Instant Pot does sous vide (but I don’t believe it circulates the water), pressure cooks, air fries, slow cooks – pretty much everything.
Judy Laquidara says
I figure the stove is 220 and the sous vide is 110 so that makes a difference. As far as plastic, most every piece of meat that we buy, if it’s going into the freezer, it gets vacuum sealed so I’m not using a ton more plastic than normal. I’m not going to go into detail about carbon footprints but my feeling is this: Everything is give and take. We all have to decide how much plastic/carbon we feel is right. I can’t tell you the last time I was on an airplane, the only time I really ever drove my car was to Missouri/Texas so now that I’m living in MO, I doubt I put 4,000 miles per year on my car.
Solar power aside . . the average person probably goes out to eat at least three times a month and that’s probably a very low estimate. Once we’re all set up here, we probably won’t go out to eat five times a year. We did quite a bit when we were first getting everything set up and I do not like eating out. But say a husband and wife go out to eat three times a month and for the two of them, the bill, including tip is $40 (and that’s low!), the monthly cost is $120, and that doesn’t include the cost of gas getting to and from the restaurant Vince calculated that the sous vide running 24 hours would cost about $4 (with no accounting for solar panels). So, if I ran it every day, that would increase my elecltric bill by $120 – the same as going out to eat three times per month.
Only once (the roast) have I used it for 24 hours straight. Most times, it’s 1 hour or maybe up to 8 hours. So, my guess is that on average, I won’t use it more than 40 hours per week. Beginning tomorrow, I’ll track how much I use it – just for fun.
I’m not saying that anyone would have to give up eating out to justify using a sous vide but I am saying that some things we don’t think twice about, but other things we want to nickel and dime.
Another thing is that I’ll move the whole sous vide operation into the garage for the summer so the heat will stay out of the house. That’s an additional cost savings. I’ll grab the bag, stick it in a bowl or wrap it in a towel and bring it in, let the water cool off and dump it around a plant that needs a drink.
Laurie says
I would worry about chemicals from the plastic migrating into my food. Even if the bags are marked BPA free and dioxin free, there are many chemicals used in the manufacturing process of plastics, most of which have not been tested extensively for their effect on the human body.
Judy Laquidara says
If I worried about everything that potentially cause harm, I’d not be doing much. I have to trust that if the bags say they’re food safe, they are. We only buy name brand bags because of that, even though we often find bags for less.
In this article, someone went a little deeper with her research, and even though there is a comment that kinda makes her question if she’s right about using Food Saver bags, she still seems to feel it’s ok.
We are never, in today’s world, going to be free of health/life risks but I feel like I’m taking a bigger risk by driving a car than I am having a problem from cooking food occasionally in a plastic bag that is supposed to be BPA free and food safe. Now . . if I were cooking for Addie every day, I might not do it but I’m more concerned about the milk she drinks than I am the plastic bags.